Read Online Taken by Storm by Danelle Harmon - Free Book Online Page B

hear me, sir? Kindly remove your hand from my wrist.”
    The pressure only seemed to tighten and tension crackled between them. “No more pastry,” he ordered softly.
    She set her jaw. Her breathing quickened, and a pulse began to beat in her ears.
    “Your promise. No more pastry. ”
    Ariadne took a deep, steadying breath, slowly turned her head, and glared angrily up at him.
    He was so close that she could see the starbursts of gray radiating from the lilac depths of his irises, feel his breath against her brow, sense the solid, unbending strength of his will. She noticed a curious, vertical dimple-line faintly clefting his chin, strands of bleached gold running through the fair hair that tumbled over his brow, the long, pale crescents of his lashes, the firm shape of his mouth.
    His mouth . . .
    Smiling coyly up at him through her lashes, Ariadne touched her forefinger to the corner of his lips.
    “You have very beautiful eyes . . . Dr. Lord.”
    Her remark, combined with that single touch, was enough to stun him into shock, which was precisely what she’d hoped to accomplish. Quickly jerking free of his grasp and pressing home her advantage, Ariadne pushed the pastry into his palm, making sure her fingertips lingered against his skin a second or two longer than was necessary. His mouth hardening, he snatched his hand away, dropped the confection, and ground it into the dirt with the heel of his boot.
    “Really,” she said, dark eyes flashing with laughter and triumph, “I think you are over-reacting.”
    “Get in the chaise.”
    Shareb-er-rehh flung up his head and flattened his ears.
    “But—”
    “I said, get in the chaise .”
    Giving him a victorious grin, she raised her brows and climbed delicately up into the vehicle. There she sat, head bent, her lips twitching as she made a great pretense of straightening her sleeve.
    Colin, his blood pounding, set his jaw. Well, she might’ve scored a hit, the little imp, but she wouldn’t win this battle.
    No way in bloody hell.
    Did he have beautiful eyes?
    “You know, Dr. Lord, I think this is going to be a very exciting adventure, don’t you?” she said airily, coaxing Bow into her lap and behaving as though the contact between them had never happened. “And oh, how funny it will be, that the whole countryside will be searching for a highborn lady dressed in the height of fashion when the real Lady Ariadne will be sneaking past under their very noses disguised as a boy! Isn’t it grand, Dr. Lord? Am I not clever? And what do you think my Maxwell will say when he sees me thus?”
    “I don’t know your Maxwell. I have no idea what he’ll say.”
    “Well, what would you think, Dr. Lord, if it was your betrothed who showed up on your doorstep dressed in a man’s clothes?”
    “I’d think she had the wrong doorstep.”
    “I’m serious! What would you think?”
    “I suppose I wouldn’t care how she was dressed, as long as I loved her and she arrived safe and sound.”
    “Have you ever been in love, Dr. Lord?”
    “Briefly.”
    “Have you ever wanted to be in love?”
    “About as much as I wanted scurvy,” he lied, walking to the stallion’s head and taking a firm grip on the reins just below its chin.
    “Be serious, sir! This is important business we’re discussing. You are a very handsome man, you know. Why, if our stations were equal, and Papa hadn’t betrothed me to Maxwell, I might even take a fancy to you myself.”
    “And why is that?”
    “Why is what?”
    Backing the horse up with one hand on its chest, he impaled her with his direct gaze, trying to put her off-balance as she had so successfully done with him. “Why would you take a fancy to me?”
    “I—” Color swept through her cheeks. “Dr. Lord, that is not a very polite question to ask a lady.”
    “Regardless, I have asked it, and should you decide not to answer, ‘twill be you who is being impolite.”
    “Very well then,” she said, a bit huffily. “I would fancy you